Snapshots From The Nat King Cole Generation Hope Gala

Leslie Gray Streeter @lesliestreeter

Monday

Dec 1, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 21, 2014 at 9:15 PM

Just returned from South Beach, the site of the first annual black tie gala in support of "Nat King Cole Generation Hope," the music education charity started by the singing legend's youngest daughters, Timolin and Casey.

The Boca Raton residents and their mother, the elegant Maria Cole, hosted about 150 guests at The Forge, a Miami Beach restaurant with huge, heavy doors (so you know it's fancy!) and a giant refrigerated wine room, which is something I'd like to convert my living room into. Who needs a couch?

The cocktail hour, during which guests toured the wine room and hung out in the Forge's pretty brick courtyard, welcomed a surprise guest - "Desperate Housewives" and "Sex And The City" star Kyle Maclachlan, who dropped by but didn't stay for dinner. I didn't get to meet him - I'd have tried if I'd known he was bailing after cocktails - but he did say "Hello" to a friend of mine.

"Trey MacDougal said 'Hi' to me!" she squealed. Lucky!

The evening featured a lovely video produced by Michael Kagdis with a taped appearance by Natalie Cole, currently on tour and recovering from kidney disease. She didn't sing, but the slack was taken up by Boca's Dennis Lambert, songwriter ("Night Shift," "Ain't No Woman") and current star of the documentary "Of All The Things," and Siedah Garrett, most famous for writing Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror," and the Oscar-nominated writer of "I Love You I Do" from "Dreamgirls."

Garrett's last song, "Man In The Mirror," was the emotional and musical highlight of the night, because it's still moving and undated 21 years after its release, and because it's got the most sing-alongable chorus ever. "Na na na"s are sure things for a sing-along.

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